UK, Australia blame Russian Federation for series of global cyberattacks

Norman Tucker

British officials believe the hackers are under direct orders from the Kremlin.

The move from Canada comes as the USA introduces new charges against a number of alleged Russian intelligence officers which it accuses of hacking the anti-doping agency.

Britain has said Russia's military intelligence agency GRU was "almost certainly" behind a campaign of online attacks targeting political institutions, businesses, media and sport bodies around the world.

Dutch authorities said they had disrupted an attempt to hack into the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in April.

The Justice Department in the United States has previously blamed the group for conducting numerous hacking operations there and around the world.

The Dutch security services say Russian Federation planned a cyber-attack on the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague earlier this year.

Russian Federation has consistently denied any involvement in the Skripal chemical attack and the shooting down of MH17.

Britain's Foreign Office on Thursday said that Russian military intelligence was behind six separate cyber attacks between mid-2015 and October 2017.

"This pattern of behavior demonstrates their desire to operate without regard to worldwide law or established norms and to do so with a feeling of impunity and without consequences", U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said.

Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld made the allegation at a press conference in the Hague, saying Dutch authorities disrupted the attempt by Russian intelligence agents in April. This was being used to intercept login details, Maj Gen Onno Eichelsheim from the Dutch MIVD intelligence service said.

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Speaking about Russia's hacking attempts into the MH17 crash investigation Thursday, she said: "We have been aware of the interest of Russian intelligence services in this investigation and have taken appropriate measures".

Whether this is enough to stop the escalation of cyber attacks (the USA recently said it would hack back at attackers) remains to be seen.

After the Skripal poisoning, the West agreed with Britain's assessment that Russian military intelligence was to blame and launched the biggest expulsion of Russian spies working under diplomatic cover since the height of the Cold War.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned Russian Federation to halt its "reckless" behavior amid a series of global cyberattacks blamed on Moscow, and says NATO allies stand united behind the U.K. and Dutch governments.

The Justice department alleged one of the Russian intelligence officers performed reconnaissance of Westinghouse Electric Co's networks and personnel.

Britain's National Cyber Security Center says four new attacks are associated with the GRU as well as earlier cyberattacks.

The NCSC also stated that the GRU was "almost certainly" to blame for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the United States presidential election in 2016. "But it seems today that what we're seeing is a coordinated campaign against Russian Federation specifically because the activities that Russian Federation has been engaging in go far beyond what in normal intelligence circles would be regarded as acceptable". "We are going to actually make it clear that where Russian Federation acts, we are going to be exposing that action", Williamson said.

"This is not the actions of a great power, these are the actions of a pariah state", British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told reporters. "This is the actions of a pariah state, and we will continue working with allies to isolate them; make them understand they can not continue to conduct themselves in such a way", he said.

News of the Dutch operation came a day after Britain and Australia blamed the GRU for some of the biggest cyber attacks of recent years - including one on the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

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